This is the first in what I hope will be many student-question inspired posts. Allyson from Philadelphia was wondering whether “nor” had to be paired with “neither” or whether it could be used on its own. The answer was far more complex than expected, so here it is. If you have an idea for a GMAT grammar blog post, or just have a question that you want answered, email me at emadan@manhattanprep.com.

To begin, you’ll need to understand the essentials of parallelism. You can get in-depth coverage of parallelism in our Sentence Correction Strategy Guide, but here are the basics. Two (or more) things in a list have to be both structural and logically parallel. Let’s start with the positive form: either/or.Read more

Subject-verb agreement is fundamental to correct sentence construction. It’s commonly tested on the GMAT, but is overlooked far too often. Today, we’re going to focus on the subject of the sentence in GMAT grammar.

The subject is the actor of the sentence. It performs the action described by the verb. For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to use “subject” to mean the main subject of the sentence, used in an independent clause, though, of course, a sentence can contain multiple actors/subjects. For example:Read more

Possessive Pronouns

Pronouns are nifty little tools for consolidating your writing. Instead of repeating a noun over and over within the same sentence, you can simply replace it with a pronoun. The meaning stays clear and the message is concise. Compare the following sentences: Read more

You know the concept, the setup, the steps. You have equations ready and a prowess with algebra. You solve the problem and come up with what is certainly the correct answer, yet you quickly find that answer is not one of the answer choices. You, my friend, are in danger of having just committed a careless error. Read more

The word “that” is one of the most flexible words that the GMAT tests. It can take several roles and could easily be misused. More commonly, it serves as a red herring that forces readers to stop and think about the wrong things. That said, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of how “that” can be used and why. Read more

Are you one of thousands who reads a critical reasoning argument and finds yourself completely lost? You’re not alone. To a much greater extent than the other GMAT sections, CR tests whether you think in the way the GMAT wants you to think. Let’s talk about what your mindset ought to be. Read more

Ready for the long awaited conclusion of how to tackle a quant problem in two minutes? We’ll finally get to the point where you can submit an answer! If you haven’t been keeping up, catch up here. Read more

If you’re already comfortable with most of the Quant content (big if, but hey, let’s play the hypothetical game), then you’ll find some of the questions in the GMAT official guide book are relatively easy. Even if you’re struggling, there will be a few questions that you get right and understand without much difficulty. Let’s talk about how those can be powerful tools.